Tuesday, February 28, 2012

The Jordan Brand Classic announced rosters for its regional all-star game and those rosters have a heavy Mecklenburg flavor.

The regional and international games are part of a tripleheader of basketball Saturday April 14 at Time Warner Cable Arena. The day concludes with the Jordan Brand Classic game featuring many of the nation's top high school players. It is generally considered one of the nation's premier all-star games along with the McDonald's All-American Game.

The international game will tip at 2:30 on April 14, followed by the regional game at 4:30 and the All-American game at 7 p.m.

Monroe High School officials report today that junior quarterback Quayshawn Chambers has been offered a scholarship by Duke.

Chambers, 6-foot-3 and 190 pounds, was named the Charlotte Touchdown Club's 2011 Comeback Player-of-the-Year.
In the first game of the 2010 season, Chambers fractured his ankle
against Porter Ridge High School. The broken tibia bone required him to
undergo emergency surgery to insert a plate and four screws into the
ankle.

This season, Chambers started at QB, leading Monroe to a 10-4
record. He threw for more than 1,700 yards passing and had more than
1,200 yards rushing.

Here's a story I wrote about him last November:

MONROE Last year, Monroe High quarterback Quay Chambers was a
sophomore starting at tight end. He was supposed to be a major
contributor. But in the first quarter of the first game, Chambers tried
to make a cut. His leg twisted, and he severely injured his ankle.

He needed surgery and was out for several months.

This season, Chambers, a 6-foot-3, 195-pound junior, is making
the most of his first full season. He has started all 13 games at
quarterback. He has rushed for 1,123 yards and 16 touchowns. He has
thrown for 1,602 yards and 20 scores.

"He's had an awesome year," Monroe coach Johnny Sowell said.
"He's big and he runs like a sprinter. You talk about a big body like
that and we spread the field and go right at you. It's hard to contain
him."

Chambers will lead Monroe (10-3) into tonight's N.C. 1AA
semifinal against visiting West Montgomery (10-2). This will be the
third-straight year the teams have met in the playoffs. Monroe won 38-21
last year. In 2009, West Montgomery beat Monroe 17-14 after a blown
call by a referee cost Monroe a third-quarter touchdown. The referee, an
18-year veteran, saw the call on video and wrote an email to Monroe's
athletic officials to apologize.

That 2009 team was unbeaten and rolling. It may have been the school's best chance at a first state championship.

"There are a lot of similarities between this team and the '09
team," Sowell said. "We're bigger up front than that team, though."

The squad Sowell likes to compare his current team to is the 1989
Monroe team that started the season 1-3 and went on to the 2A state
championship game, where Monroe lost 16-0 to Clayton.

Sowell was an assistant on that team. And this year's Monroe team, like the '89 team, started 1-3.

This year, the Redhawks lost 55-26 to Porter Ridge, a 4A
quarterfinalist, 45-41 to Concord, a 3A quarterfinalist, and 38-12 to
Marvin Ridge, which finished 10-2 and lost to Charlotte Catholic in the
second round of the 3A playoffs.

Monroe only has 24 players on varsity this year, including Chambers.

"After the fourth game in '89 we turned it around," Sowell said.
"We did the same thing this year. We want to play the best out there. We
feel like we can play with any of them. We don't have the numbers they
have and we got wore down, but since the weather has cooled off and our
kids have gotten conditioned, we've played pretty well."

Monday, February 13, 2012

Olympic and West Charlotte began the season at the top of the Sweet 16. As we start the postseason this week with conference tournaments, the same two teams are again in the top two spots.

Only they are reversed.

Olympic has been No. 1 since December after starting at No. 2, and the Lions, the preseason No. 1, have worked their way back to the No. 2 spot after dropping as low as No. 12. West Charlotte had won nine straight games heading into conference tournament play Monday night.

One new team, 21-3 Hickory, joined the boys poll after Berry fell out.

There wasn’t much movement in the girls poll as No. 1 Myers Park and No. 2 Providence Day appear firmly planted at the top.

Note: To be ranked in the Observer’s Sweet 16, a team must be in the newspaper’s coverage area, must field football and basketball teams and not allow a student-athlete to re-class once they’ve started ninth grade. For a detailed look inside the poll, including the criteria used to compile it, visit this link: http://bit.ly/prNoYM

Saturday, February 11, 2012

President Obama, between running for re-election and running the country, has apparently also been coaching his daughter Sasha's basketball team,ABC news reports.

In a photo released by the White House, Obama is seen on the sidelines along with his former personal aide, Reggie Love. Love, who played at Duke, is a former All-Observer basketball and football player from Providence Day School in Charlotte.

Between his many duties as Commander in Chief, President Obama seems to have added a new responsibility to his plate: Coaching his daughter Sasha’s basketball team.

Weekends at the White House typically see a casually dressed Obama traveling to his daughters’ sports games....If there are no events scheduled, he often takes the children and their friends to shoot hoops on their own. As such, the press is accustomed to seeing presidential assistants lugging sacks of athletic gear into his motorcade, weaving between Secret Service.

But media are rarely allowed to attend the games and according to Michelle Obama, the First Dad has taken a stronger role than previously known by actively instructing Sasha’s team.

“He hasn’t missed a game,” the First Lady said on Thursday. “I think he was hoping to get this weekend off, but I’m gone.”

ABC News says it's not clear how long the President has been coaching Sasha's team. But adds that a year ago, he and Love acted as substitute coaches when the team's normal coaches couldn't make a game.

Here is a video Love gave before he left the White House last November to attend the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Rosters for the annual Dave Telep Challenge have been announced.
Telep, a national high school basketball recruiting analyst for ESPN, annually invites the state's top underclassmen to the Raleigh area for day of drills and scrimmaging. This year's event is scheduled for March 24 at Raleigh Ravenscroft School.

Hopewell won the title after Mallard Creek beat Hough 53-52, denying second-year Hough a shot at the title. Mallard Creek (19-4, 11-3) and Hough (15-8, 11-3) finished the regular season tied for second.

In Hopewell’s win, Sharee’ Boyd had 16 points, 12 rebounds, five blocks, three assists and two steals to lead the Titans (16-7, 12-2).

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Butler High QB Riley Ferguson, a 6-foot-3 junior, picked up three offers this week, his mother told the Observer.

Ferguson got offers from national champion Alabama, North Carolina and South Florida. Ferguson threw for 3,345 yards and 48 touchdowns last season, leading Butler to the N.C. 4AA quarterfinals. As a sophomore, he led the Bulldogs to the N.C. 4AA championship.

Dropped out: Anson Senior (15-5). On the bubble: Alexander Central (4A, 16-5); Clover, S.C. (4A, 17-4); Hough (4A, 15-6); North Iredell (3A, 15-5); Rock Hill Northwestern (4A, 17-4). Records are through Friday’s games.Note: To be ranked in the Observer’s Sweet 16, a team must be in the newspaper’s coverage area, must field football and basketball teams and not allow a student-athlete to re-class once they’ve started ninth grade. For a detailed look inside the poll, including the criteria used to compile it, visit this link: http://bit.ly/prNoYM

Davidson Day’s football team has been invited to Palmetto State Showdown national 7-on-7 tournament at Duncan Byrnes (S.C.) High June 15-16. Top national programs like Brynes and Valdosta (Ga.) are scheduled to compete.

Davidson Day quarterback Will Grier was been named to the MaxPreps sophomore All-America team last month, after the 6-foot-3, 190-pounder threw for 3,785 yards and 49 TDs last
season. He was named to the Observer's All-Mecklenburg football team in December.

Rosters were announced Thursday for the Jordan Brand Classic Game, which will be held in Charlotte for the second straight year April 14. The game, hosted at Time Warner Cable Arena, will be shown live on ESPN.

The game brings together some of the nation's best high school players, including the top four players in ESPN's top 100: No.1 Shabazz Muhammad (Las Vegas, NV/Undecided), No. 2
Isaiah Austin (Arlington, TX/Baylor), No. 3 Kyle Anderson (Jersey City,
NJ/UCLA) and No. 4 Kaleb Tarczewski (Southborough, MA/Arizona).

The
Jordan Brand Classic event will also include a Regional Game,
showcasing the top prep players from the state of North Carolina and the fifth annual International Game featuring
16 of the top 17-and-under players from around the world. Two of the
top five picks in last year’s NBA Draft included International game
alums Enes Kanter (Turkey) and Jonas Valančiūnas (Lithuania).

The
tripleheader will begin with the International Game at 2:30 PM followed
by the Regional Game at 4:30 PM, and the All-American Game at 7:00 PM.
The International and regional rosters will be announced at a later
date.

Tickets for the Jordan Brand Classic are now
on sale at all Ticketmaster locations, the Time Warner Cable box office,
online at ticketmaster.com or by calling 1-800-745-3000. For more
information, visit the official web site, www.JordanBrandClassic.com

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Mallard Creek running back Jela Duncan, the 2011 Charlotte Observer offensive player of the year, has signed to play football at Duke.

Duncan, a 5-foot-10, 195-pound senior, was the top offensive player on the Mavericks team that was ranked among the top 20 nationally by several publications for much of the season. Duncan, who had a 74-yard scoring run in the Shrine Bowl, finished the year with 2,307 yards on 220 carries and 30 touchdowns. He also caught 27 passes for 465 yards and five scores.

His rushing yards are the fourth-most in Mecklenburg County history. His touchdowns are tied for 12th.